The 10 Best Small Towns In California For 2022

You've seen these lists before: Best places to live in California, Most Beautiful Downtowns, etc., etc. But all of them focus on major cities and towns in the Golden State and no one pays attention to the little guy.

Well, that's all about to change as we put together a list of the best small towns in California based on numbers--not opinions or hearsay.

We'll dive right into our methodology in the next section; but first, we thought you might just want to know which places in California ranked the based--you know, based on science.

Before we get to the top 15, here's a look at the 10 Best Small Towns To Live in California for 2022.

What's the best small town in California? Carmel-by-the-Sea is the best small town in California based on the most recent Census data. If you live in one of these small towns like Carmel-by-the-Sea, chances are, you're not surprised. After all, you know how great you have it.

But for the rest of you--keep reading and we'll get to just why these small towns made our list.

For more reading on the Golden State check out:

• Best Places To Live In California
• Cheapest Places To Live In California
• Most Dangerous Cities In California

Next 10 Cities

Methodology: How We Determined The Coolest Towns In California

We threw a lot of criteria at this one in order to get the best, most complete results possible. Using the most recent data from the Census's 2016-2020 American Community Survey and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this is the criteria we used:

• Population Density (Higher is better)
• Lowest Unemployment Rates
• Housing costs (Higher is better. More demand.)
• Adjusted Median Income (Higher is better)
• Highly Educated Adults (Higher is better)
• Insurance Rates (Higher is better)
• Commute Times (Lower is better)

We looked at places with populations lower than 5,000 people and greater than 1,000, of which, there were a lot - 350 to be exact.

We then ranked each place in each category with scores from 1 to 350, averaged them out, and the lowest scores went to our Best Small Towns in California. Top of that list -- Carmel-by-the-Sea. You can download the data here.

Keep reading to find out more about our top 15 best small towns in California.

Summary: Science Can Tackle Any Issue, Even Small Ones

We said it once and we'll say it again -- this list: it's just science. We did the research, we crunched the numbers, and it turns out, these 15 small towns in California are the best, in which to live.

And who can argue with that?

If you're curious, here are the worst small towns in California:

1. Berry Creek
2. Thermal
3. Woodville

For more California reading, check out:

• Best Places To Raise A Family In California
• Safest Places In California
• Worst Places To Live In California

Detailed List Of The Best Small Towns In California